Some commercial software, such as the Microsoft™ Office suite of software, enables the creation of image files that include objects that have different levels of transparency that are represented by an increase or decrease in the shade of the objects. In order to output a copy of an image represented by one of these image files, these applications typically generate a page description that represents the image. Typically, the page description will include one or more binary level masks tiled over color value (i.e., hue) information to lighten the shade of the color value information in accordance with the transparency level dictated by the image file.
In conventional implementations, a network controller of a printing device receives the page description and generates an output file, such as a bitmap, that represents the image. In generating the bitmap, the network controller halftones the color value information included in the page description to provide a pixel by pixel map of where color should be applied to the output copy of the image. In some instances, the binary level masks included in the page description and the color value halftone used to generate the output file interact to introduce undesirable artifacts into the output file that are then included in the copy of the image that is output based on the output file. For example, one or more properties of the binary level masks and the color value halftone may correlate to cause beating and/or other artifacts. The one or more properties that may correlate include periodicity, density, angle, distribution pattern and/or other properties of the binary level masks and the color value halftone. Since different output devices implement patterns of color value halftone with different properties, it may not be practicable to design a single set of binary level masks with properties that will not cause degradation of an output image through interaction with color value halftone for different output devices.
These and other drawbacks with conventional systems are addressed by the following disclosure.